What a feast that breakfast was! The bread, Mrs. Stark explained with a bit more graciousness than she’d shown last night, was called “French toast,” and was made by soaking stale bread in a mixture of eggs and milk, then cooking it slowly, so it became like custard on the inside and golden-brown and a bit crispy on the outside. That was something I possibly had the skill to do, if I paid careful attention. The French toast was served with butter—real butter!—jam, and something called “maple syrup,” and also apples cooked in more butter, with sugar and cinnamon.
I said, “But this is lovely. What is this syrup made of? I haven’t tasted this before. Is it a sort of caramel?”
“No,” Mr. Stark said. “It’s the sap of the maple tree, boiled down.”
“And it’sreallyexpensive,” Sophie said. “We’re only having it today because Joe’s here. Golden Boy comes home from the wars and everybody pulls out all the stops. Daughters,now—daughters don’t count for much. You might think it’s for you, Marguerite, but I doubt it.” She said the last three words in a singsong voice that I didn’t need to translate.
“That’s enough,” Mr. Stark said, “unless you want to go to your room.”
“Fine,” Sophie said. “I’m only saying what everybody else is thinking, huh, Barbara?”
Barbara said, “Don’t dragmeinto it. Joe was wounded. It’s natural that Mom and Dad have a soft spot for him.” Sophie rolled her eyes, and Barbara went on, “But maple syrup does cost the earth, especially now. I know that David and I don’t buy it. It’s Hanukkah, though, and we’re all together. Family matters, Sophie.”
“I saw the new figures in the paper this morning,” David said. “Inflation’s at nearly eight percent for the year, and rising.”
“Terrible,” Mr. Stark said, helping himself to more of the griddled bread. “Hard to avoid, I suppose, with everyone rushing to buy after the war.”
“What is this word?” I asked. “Inflation? It means to fill something with air, is that correct?”
“It’s the rate at which prices are rising,” David said. “It happens when there’s more demand for something than supply.”
“But I am familiar with this!” I said. “This was the problem under the Weimar Republic, you know, in the early, uh … Joe,die Zwanziger?”
“The early 1920s,” Joe said.
“Yes,” I said. “At this time, prices rose very high, very fast. In this case, because the government printed so much money to pay its war debts. People pushed wheelbarrows full ofDeutschmarksto the shops just to buy a loaf of bread. At last they could hardly buy at all, only trade. What is this called, Joe?”
“Barter,” Joe said. “Trading one good for another.”
“Yes,” I said. “The barber cut his customer’s hair, and the customer gave him eggs, and so forth.”
“How do you know?” Sophie asked. You wouldn’t even have been alive.”
“I learned it,” I said. “It was history. This period was very difficult, and then, later, there was a very great lack of employment. This is one reason Hitler was able to come to power. Here, you don’t have such a person, but Mr. Truman instead. This is very lucky.”
“Not so much luck,” Mrs. Stark said. “We voted for him. Or rather for Roosevelt.”
“Yes,” I said. “Of course. Very sensibly, I think, for Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill were much hated—and feared, I believe—by Hitler, and he was right to do so, was he not?”
“I’m glad you approve,” Mrs. Stark said.
“Would you rather shedidn’tapprove?” Sophie said.“Honestly.And you learned about that stuff in school, Marguerite? We never learn anything interesting. It’s all the Pilgrims and the Revolutionary War and the pioneers and so on, which nobody remembers and nobody cares about, until you die of boredom. I mean, we just had a Great Depression andtwoworld wars. Do you think we could learn about that? Oh, no, let’s admire Squanto and the beans and corn one more time, or the Lewis and Clark Expedition. I certainly haven’t heard enough aboutthat.”
“I didn’t learn most of this in school either,” I said. “School under the Nazis was all propaganda and sport and memorizing. Perhaps even worse than your school.”
“Sophie attends an excellent school,” Mrs. Stark said.
“Yes,” I said, “but the beans and corn are very humorous, are they not? For me, before I went toGymnasium—uh, Joe?”
“High school for more intellectual students,” he said.
“Yes. Before this, I had an English governess, and she had a most logical mind. This is why my father chose her, for he believed very much in reason. He said reason was like a muscle, and one had to train it.”
“So you were rich,” Sophie said. “I don’t knowanyonewho ever had a governess, only in books. But Mom and Dad said you were poor, and that’s why you married Joe. Something’s fishy here.”
“Sophie!”both her parents said together.
The adults all looked so horrified, I had to laugh. “I’ve been many things in my life. It was that sort of time. Now, with Joe, I have all I need, and, yes, life is much better. It’s important that I know, however, that the cost of food will be rising. I’ll begin looking for a job tomorrow. Joe and I have agreed on this.”
